United States President Donald Trump has escalated his feud with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator with out elections”.
In a prolonged and scathing put up on his social media platform Reality Social on Wednesday, Trump additionally accused Zelenskyy of taking US cash and embroiling the nation in an limitless battle.
“Consider it, a modestly profitable comic, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the USA of America into spending $350 Billion {Dollars}, to enter a Conflict that couldn’t be gained, that by no means needed to begin,” Trump, a former actuality TV star, wrote.
The US president continued by insinuating that Zelenskyy had ulterior motives for wanting Ukraine to proceed preventing for its territory.
“Zelenskyy most likely needs to maintain the ‘gravy prepare’ going,” Trump mentioned, utilizing an idiom that means the Ukraine is receiving simple cash.
The social media put up marked Trump’s most barbed rhetoric but in the direction of the Ukrainian president, a US ally, as he seeks to repel a full-scale Russian invasion that started in February 2022.
However Trump’s general posture has change into more and more hostile in the direction of Zelenskyy, as he and his authorities draw nearer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Already, European allies have responded with outrage over Trump’s newest remarks, saying his feedback are detrimental to the peace course of.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as an example, responded forcefully in opposition to the allegations that Zelenskyy was a “dictator” for not holding elections in wartime.
“It’s merely incorrect and harmful to disclaim President Zelenskyy democratic legitimacy,” Scholz advised the newspaper Spiegel shortly after Trump’s put up.
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the elected head of state of Ukraine. The truth that correct elections can’t be held in the midst of a conflict is in step with the necessities of the Ukrainian structure and electoral legal guidelines. Nobody ought to declare in any other case.”
A pattern of accelerating hostility
The conflict in Ukraine will attain its third anniversary on February 24, with no clear finish in sight.
However upon taking workplace final month on January 20, Trump promised to be a “peacemaker and unifier”, implying he might carry international conflicts to a swift conclusion.
On February 12, he made a shock announcement on social media: He had simply concluded a “prolonged and extremely productive telephone name” with President Putin and had agreed to “begin negotiations instantly” to finish the conflict in Ukraine.
The announcement got here on the heels of a prisoner trade between the US and Russia, and at first, Zelenskyy expressed optimism in regards to the dialogue.
However inside hours, the temper had soured, with Zelenskyy and his European allies accusing the US of reducing them out of the peace negotiations altogether.
This week, US officers travelled to Saudi Arabia to fulfill Russian officers for the primary high-level talks between the 2 nations since Russia’s full-scale invasion started. No Ukrainian or European representatives took half within the dialogue.
Trump and Putin have additionally confirmed plans to go to each other’s nations within the coming months.
In the meantime, Trump and his officers have been pressuring Ukraine to make concessions.
Final week, as an example, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth advised a gathering of European allies that it was an “illusionary aim” for Ukraine to hunt the return of all its territory courting again to 2014, when Russia invaded the peninsula of Crimea.
“We are going to solely finish this devastating conflict and set up a sturdy peace by coupling allied power with a sensible evaluation of the battlefield,” Hegseth mentioned.
“We would like, such as you, a sovereign and affluent Ukraine. However we should begin by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal.”
Trump echoed these sentiments himself, and on Tuesday, he accused Zelenskyy of initiating the invasion himself.
“It is best to have by no means began it. You can have made a deal. I might have made a deal for Ukraine,” Trump mentioned in remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He additionally argued that Zelenskyy solely has himself accountable for being excluded from the peace negotiations.
“Right now, I heard, ‘Oh, effectively, we weren’t invited.’ Properly, you’ve been there for 3 years. It is best to have ended it,” Trump mentioned.
Russia has lengthy argued its full-scale invasion of Ukraine was obligatory to guard civilians and stop the nation from becoming a member of the NATO alliance.
Putin and his allies have referred to a Chilly Conflict-era remark from a US official saying that NATO would develop “not one inch” eastward, although no such coverage was ever formalised or written down.
However Ukraine and its European allies have denounced the invasion as an unprovoked act of aggression, one which displays Putin’s territorial ambitions in Jap Europe.
On Tuesday, within the wake of Trump’s newest social media put up, German International Minister Annalena Baerbock argued that the one actual dictatorship was in Russia.
“When you take a look at the actual world as an alternative of simply firing off a tweet, then who in Europe has to dwell within the situations of a dictatorship,” she mentioned.
Ukrainian International Minister Andrii Sybiha additionally responded to Trump’s stress, writing on social media: “No one can pressure Ukraine to surrender. We are going to defend our proper to exist.”
Al Jazeera correspondent Kimberly Halkett mentioned that Trump’s newest feedback on Zelenskyy had been an instance of his “traditional bullying” ways.
“He’s actually making an attempt to decrease the Ukrainian chief by referring to his earlier occupation: that he was a comic earlier than he grew to become the chief of Ukraine,” she mentioned.
Beneath the tenure of former President Joe Biden, the US stood firmly by Ukraine, together with by sending the war-torn nation billions of {dollars} in army gear and help.
However Halkett warned that Trump’s newest remarks sign a “gorgeous reversal” of US coverage.
“What the Biden administration did beforehand was isolate Russia,” she mentioned. “Now, the Trump administration is doing the precise reverse.”
However in his put up on Tuesday, Trump accused Zelenskyy of enjoying Biden “like a fiddle”. He solid himself as uniquely capable of safe peace for Ukraine.
“We’re efficiently negotiating an finish to the Conflict with Russia, one thing all admit solely ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,” the US president wrote.
He additionally supplied some ominous phrases to his Ukrainian counterpart. “A Dictator with out Elections, Zelenskyy higher transfer quick or he isn’t going to have a Nation left.”
Zelenskyy has warned that it might be “very, very, very troublesome” for Ukraine to outlive Russia’s persevering with assault with out US assist, and he has referred to as for a united US-Europe entrance in opposition to the aggression.
In his personal social media put up on Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated his place that Putin was to not be trusted — and urged Europe and the US to work collectively to hunt a decision to the conflict.
“We can not permit Putin to deceive everybody once more,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Earlier than any potential negotiations, all companions should clearly perceive that sturdy safety ensures are the precedence for lasting peace.”
